This inauguration looking like low-key affair
idential historian at New York University. “It would be un-Trumpian for there not to be some spectacle.”
Past presidents have sought to set a tone for their presidency with their inaugurations. John F. Kennedy’s was a high point of style and elegance, a declaration that glamour had returned after the plain-Jane years of President Dwight D. Eisenhower.
Jimmy Carter, on the other hand, pressed the notion of a “people’s inauguration,” noting at one point that the new first lady had opted to wear the same blue satin gown she had at his gubernatorial inauguration in Georgia six years earlier.
Ronald Reagan, a Hollywood actor, amped up the glamour and pizazz. Bill Clinton embraced his baby boomer status, throwing a free concert that included an array of stars and a reformed Fleetwood Mac to perform its hit “Don’t Stop,” which had become his campaign anthem.
Building on his campaign theme of “hope and change,” Obama’s first inauguration set a record for attendance, as officials opened the full length of the Mall for the swearing-in ceremony.
At his news conference last week, Trump promised an inauguration that would be “very, very special, very beautiful,” and predicted “massive crowds.”
Thomas Barrack, an international financier who is leading Trump’s inaugural committee, told reporters last week that the president-elect is seeking to avoid a “circuslike atmosphere” with his festivities.